Sheila Adams Sapper

Post-doctoral Researcher

PhD, U.C. Berkeley, 2015

MPH, U.C. Berkeley, 2011

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My current research focuses on determining the mechanisms mediating carbapenem heteroresistance among clinical strains of K. pneumoniae and E. coli harboring the β-lactamase gene, Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC). Many KPC-producing clinical strains show low level resistance to carbapenems when tested in vitro by clinical labs, yet can survive concentrations of the drug well above the assessed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and with exposure to carbapenems, can convert to high level, permanently resistant strains. Understanding the mechanisms leading to this conversion may contribute to improvements in treatment for patients infected with these strains.

I also coordinate an ongoing molecular epidemiologic study of Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) isolates from patients diagnosed with blood stream infections (BSI) at a major public hospital in San Francisco. In order to detect the potential temporal association between dissemination in community or institutional settings and emergence of multidrug resistance, we perform genotype analysis of all E. coli isolates, comparing the distribution and diversity of drug-resistant and drug-sensitive clonal groups to those circulating worldwide. We will link this molecular data to detailed patient chart data to better understand potential reservoirs and transmission pathways, in particular for specific clonal lineages of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli.